Frankfurt a. M., 07/03/2025: The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) published a guest article by Stefan Liebing and Andreas Freytag. The article includes recommendations for the new coalition to strengthen Germany’s foreign trade.
The German economy faces the challenge of maintaining and expanding its position in international trade. The foreign trade situation has changed and Germany should continue to promote free trade by supporting the multilateral order, promoting trade agreements and reducing non-tariff trade barriers. A new agreement between the EU and Africa could play an important role in this by reducing trade barriers, particularly in the agricultural sector.
The new coalition government is called upon to take the following recommended measures to strengthen foreign trade and secure Germany’s competitiveness.
Key measures
- Professionalize foreign trade promotion: The German government should expand its foreign trade promotion to provide greater support for German companies, especially SMEs, by making export credit guarantees more flexible, improving financial guarantees and providing greater political support for German economic interests in difficult partner countries.
- Promotion of SMEs: SMEs should be supported in foreign business by central coordination and a stronger presence platform such as GTAI, while foreign trade responsibilities should be bundled by transferring the BMZ departments to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and centralized under a Minister of State or Secretary of State.
- Pursue an interest-based development policy: Development cooperation and foreign trade promotion should be interlinked in order to promote German investment in infrastructure and renewable energies in developing countries.
- Reduce bureaucracy – scrap the Supply Chain Act: German SMEs are at a structural disadvantage when it comes to international expansion, partly due to high bureaucratic requirements such as the Supply Chain Act, which should be abolished and replaced by a negative list approach at EU level.